Accessory device, electronic musical instrument and teaching apparatus

ABSTRACT

In an electronic musical instrument, an interface part obtains user information from a dedicated accessory device logically connected to the electronic musical instrument. An access part accesses a server using the user information obtained through the interface part. A character information acquisition part obtains character information which represents a character and which corresponds to the user information, from the server or the dedicated accessory device. A lesson information acquisition part obtains, from the server, lesson information which represents a lesson work to be practiced. A control part performs control operation to display the character created based on the character information obtained by the character information acquisition part while the electronic musical instrument is logically connected to the dedicated accessory device through the interface part, and to display the lesson information when the lesson information has been obtained by the lesson information acquisition part.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is a divisional of and claims priority from U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/690,274 filed Mar. 23, 2007, the content of which isincorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Technical Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an accessory device, an electronicmusical instrument, a teaching apparatus, and a program that are usedfor teaching music.

2. Description of the Related Art

An electronic musical instrument and a teaching apparatus for use inteaching music are known in the art.

In a conventional music teaching system as a combination of theelectronic musical instrument and the teaching apparatus, a teacherterminal (a teacher device) for a teacher and a student terminal for astudent are connected through a wide area network, and the teacherterminal receives results of a practice that the student has conductedusing the student terminal, and the teacher listens to the receivedpractice results and sends advice about musical sense and skill to thestudent terminal (for example, see Japanese Patent ApplicationPublication No. 11-219104).

However, although the conventional music teaching system can present theadvice of the teacher, the student cannot practice a music performancewith the student terminal since the student terminal is a mere personalcomputer (PC). In order to practice a music performance, it is necessaryto connect a keyboard instrument or the like to the student terminal. Inaddition, to transmit practice results to the teacher terminal, it isnecessary to connect the student terminal to the wide area network sincethe student terminal is connected to the teacher terminal through thewide area network. Especially, an operation for the connection isdifficult for young students.

In addition, although it is desired to increase the motivation of theperformance practice of students who commute to a musical classroom, theconventional music teaching system cannot increase the motivation sincethis system is targeted at remote music teaching and does not supporthome practices of students who commute to the musical classroom.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances,and it is an object of the invention to provide an accessory device, anelectronic musical instrument, a teaching apparatus, and a program thatcan increase the motivation of performance practice of the student andthat can also allow the student to keep up the performance practice withenjoyment.

An accessory device according to the invention comprises: a nonvolatilestorage part that stores character information representing a feature ofa character; an interface part that reads and writes the characterinformation from and to an external device which is logically connectedto the accessory device; a display; and a control part that performscontrol operation to display the character created based on thecharacter information stored in the nonvolatile storage part, on thedisplay, and to hide the character from the display while the accessorydevice is logically connected to the external device through theinterface part.

Preferably, the inventive accessory device further comprises an operatorwhich is operable by a user; and a change part that changes thecharacter information stored in the nonvolatile storage part accordingto an operation of the operator or an elapsed time.

Preferably, the interface part comprises a contactless interface of aproximity type or a neighborhood type, which is capable of logicallyconnecting the external device when the accessory device is placed inproximity or nationhood of the external device. Alternatively, theinterface part comprises a contact-type interface having exposedelectrodes for electric contact with the external device or having aconnector for connection with the external device.

An electronic musical instrument according to the invention comprises:an interface part that obtains at least user information from adedicated accessory device logically connected to the electronic musicalinstrument; an access part that accesses a server using the userinformation obtained through the interface part; a character informationacquisition part that obtains character information which represents acharacter and which corresponds to the user information, from the serveror the dedicated accessory device; a lesson information acquisition partthat obtains, from the server lesson information which represents alesson work to be practiced and which corresponds to the userinformation; a display; and a control part that performs controloperation to display the character created based on the characterinformation obtained by the character information acquisition part, onthe display while the electronic musical instrument is logicallyconnected to the dedicated accessory device through the interface part,and to display the lesson information on the display when the lessoninformation has been obtained by the lesson information acquisitionpart.

Preferably, the inventive electronic musical instrument furthercomprises: a reward information acquisition part that obtains, from theserver reward information which represents a reward to practicing of thelesson work and which corresponds to the user information; a change partthat changes the obtained character information using the rewardinformation obtained by the reward information acquisition part; and anupdating part that updates the character information which correspondsto the user information and which is present in the server or thededicated accessory device in accordance with the changed characterinformation, wherein the control part performs the control operation todisplay the character created based on the changed character informationon the display.

Preferably, the inventive electronic musical instrument furthercomprises: a recording part that records a performance operation of theelectronic musical instrument that is performed for practicing thelesson work while the electronic musical instrument is logicallyconnected to the dedicated accessory device; and another change partthat changes practice record information which corresponds to the userinformation and which is present in the server, based on a record of theperformance operation recorded by the recording part.

Preferably, the interface part comprises a contactless interface of aproximity type or a neighborhood type, which is capable of logicallyconnecting the dedicated accessory device when the dedicated accessorydevice is brought into proximity or nationhood of the contactlessinterface. Alternatively, the interface part comprises a contact-typeinterface having exposed electrodes for electric contact with thededicated accessory device or having a connector for connection with thededicated accessory device.

An inventive machine readable medium contains a program executable by acomputer to perform: an access process of accessing a server using userinformation which is obtained from a dedicated accessory device throughan interface to which the dedicated accessory device is logicallyconnected; a character information acquisition process of obtainingcharacter information which represents a character and which correspondsto the user information from the server or the dedicated accessorydevice; a lesson information acquisition process of obtaining lessoninformation which represents a lesson work to be practiced and whichcorresponds to the user information from the server; and a controlprocess of performing control operation to display the character createdbased on the character information obtained by the character informationacquisition process, on a display while the dedicated accessory deviceis logically connected to the interface, and to display the lessoninformation on the display when the lesson information has been obtainedby the lesson information acquisition process.

A teaching apparatus according to the invention comprises: an interfacepart that obtains at least user information which indicates a studentfrom a dedicated accessory device logically connected to the teachingapparatus; an access part that accesses a server using the userinformation obtained through the interface part; a character informationacquisition part that obtains character information which represents acharacter and which corresponds to the user information from the serveror the dedicated accessory device; an input part that inputs rewardinformation which represents a reward to practicing of a lesson work bythe student; a registration part that registers the reward informationinputted through the input part on the server in association with theuser information; a display; and a control part that performs controloperation to display the character created based on the characterinformation obtained by the character information acquisition part, onthe display while the teaching apparatus is logically connected to thededicated accessory device through the interface part.

Preferably, the inventive teaching apparatus further comprises apractice record information acquisition part that obtains practicerecord information associated with the user information, the practicerecord information being present on the server and representing a recordof the practicing of the lesson work by the student, wherein the controlpart performs control operation to display the practice recordinformation obtained by the practice record information acquisition parton the display.

Preferably, the interface part comprises a contactless interface of aproximity type or a neighborhood type, which is capable of logicallyconnecting the dedicated accessory device when the dedicated accessorydevice is brought into proximity or nationhood of the contactlessinterface. Alternatively, the interface part comprises a contact-typeinterface having exposed electrodes for electric contact with thededicated accessory device or having a connector for connection with thededicated accessory device.

Another inventive machine readable medium contains a program executableby a computer to perform: an access process of accessing a server usinguser information which identifies a student and which is obtained from adedicated accessory device through an interface to which the dedicatedaccessory device is logically connected; a character informationacquisition process of obtaining character information which representsa character and which corresponds to the user information from theserver or the dedicated accessory device; a registration process ofregistering reward information on the server in association with theuser information, the reward information representing a reward topracticing of a lesson work by the student; and a control process ofperforming control operation to display the character created based onthe character information obtained by the character informationacquisition process, on a display while the dedicated accessory deviceis logically connected to the interface.

According to the invention, a character created based on the characterinformation stored in the nonvolatile storage part is displayed on thedisplay unit, and the character is hidden from the display unit whilethe accessory device is logically connected to the external devicethrough the interface part. Accordingly, a person who operates theelectronic musical instrument or the accessory device can operate itwith a sense of identity with the character such that the person canpractice together with the character with enjoyment.

According to the invention, a character created based on the characterinformation obtained by the character information acquisition part isdisplayed on the display unit while the electronic musical instrument islogically connected to the dedicated accessory device through theinterface part, and the lesson information is displayed on the displayunit when the lesson information has been obtained. Accordingly, thestudent can take the lesson with enjoyment.

According to the invention, it is possible to increase the motivation ofthe performance practice of the student since the student can receivethe reward information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an example configuration of a music teaching systemincluding an electronic musical instrument according to an embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a schematic configuration of a studentelectronic musical instrument in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates an external appearance of an accessory device in FIG.2.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of the accessory device of FIG. 3.

FIGS. 5 a to 5 c illustrate most important information used when themusic teaching system of FIG. 1 performs control operations.

FIGS. 6 a and 6 b illustrate an example of a character displayed on adisplay unit of the student electronic musical instrument of FIG. 2.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure of a main routineperformed by the student electronic musical instrument of FIG. 2(specifically, by a CPU therein).

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating a detailed procedure of a loginprocess in FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating a detailed procedure of a practiceprocess in FIG. 7.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating a detailed procedure of a logoutprocess in FIG. 7.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating a detailed procedure of a loginprocess of a teacher electronic musical instrument in FIG. 1.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart of a procedure of a main routine performed bythe accessory device of FIG. 4 (specifically, by a CPU therein).

FIGS. 13 a and 13 b illustrate an accessory device having a differentconfiguration from that of the accessory device of FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detailwith reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example configuration of a music teaching systemincluding an electronic musical instrument according to an embodiment ofthe invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the music teaching system of this embodimentincludes a student electronic musical instrument 100, a guardian PC 101,a teacher electronic musical instrument 300, and a server computer 400(that will be referred to as a “server” for short). The devices 100,101, 300, and 400 are connected to each other through a communicationnetwork 500.

The guardian PC 101 may be omitted since this device is not essentialfor the music teaching system of this embodiment. The teacher electronicmusical instrument 300 is not necessarily embodied as a musicalinstrument and may also be embodied as a PC.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a schematic configuration of the studentelectronic musical instrument 100.

As shown in FIG. 2, the student electronic musical instrument 100includes a performance operator 1, a setting operator 2, a detectioncircuit 3, a detection circuit 4, a CPU 5, a ROM 6, a RAM 7, a timer 8,a display unit 9, an external storage device 10, a contactlesscommunication interface (I/F) 11, a general-purpose interface (I/F) 12,a Musical instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) interface (I/F) 13, acommunication interface (I/F) 14, a tone generator circuit 15, an effectcircuit 16, and a sound system 17. The performance operator 1 includes akeyboard for inputting pitch information. The setting operator 2includes a joystick and a plurality of switches or a wheel for inputtinga variety of information. The detection circuit 3 detects operatingstates of the performance operator 1. The detection circuit 4 detectsoperating states of the setting operator 2. The CPU 5 controls overalloperations of the student electronic musical instrument 100. The ROM 6stores a control program to be executed by the CPU 5 or a variety oftable data. The timer 8 measures an interrupt time in a timer interruptprocess and various other times. The display unit 9 includes, forexample, a liquid crystal display (LCD), a light emitting diode (LED),and the like for displaying a variety of information or the like. Theexternal storage device 10 is a machine readable medium and stores avariety of application programs including the control program, a varietyof music data, and various other data. Through the contactlesscommunication interface 11, the student electronic musical instrument100 performs contactless communication with an accessory device 200.Through the general-purpose interface 12, the student electronic musicalinstrument 100 is connected to other devices. Through the MIDI interface13, a MIDI message is input and output to and from the studentelectronic musical instrument 100. The communication interface 14performs data communication with, for example, the teacher electronicmusical instrument 300 or the server 400 through the communicationnetwork 500. The tone generator circuit 15 converts preset performancedata or performance data input through the performance operator 1 into amusical sound signal. The effect circuit 16 imparts a variety of effectsto a musical sound signal from the tone generator circuit 15. The soundsystem 17 includes, for example, an amplifier, a speaker, or a digitalto analog converter (DAC) for converting a musical sound signal from theeffect circuit 16 into sound.

The components 3 to 16 are connected to each other through a bus 18. Thetimer 8 is connected to the CPU 5. Another MIDI device 600 is connectedto the MIDI interface 13. The communication network 500 is connected tothe communication interface 14. The effect circuit 16 is connected tothe music circuit 15. The sound system 17 is connected to the effectcircuit 16. Each of the communication interface 14 and the communicationnetwork 500 is not limited to a wired type and may also be of a wirelesstype. A communication interface and a communication network of both thetypes may also be provided.

Examples of the external storage device 10 include a floppy disk drive(FDD), a hard disk drive (HDD), a CD-ROM drive, and a magneto-opticaldisc (MO) drive. The control program which is to be executed by the CPU5 as described above can also be stored in the external storage device10. In the case where no control program is stored in the ROM 6, thecontrol program can be stored in the external storage device 10 and thenbe loaded into the RAM 7, thereby causing the CPU 5 to perform the sameoperation as that when the control program is stored in the ROM 6. Thismakes it easy to add another control program or to update the version ofthe control program.

Any communication type of interface can be employed as the contactlesscommunication interface 11 provided that it can perform contactlesscommunication. For example, a Bluetooth or infrared communicationinterface or a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) interface can beemployed as the contactless communication interface 11. It is preferableto employ a type of interface which can perform communication with anobject only when the object is very close to the interface (for example,within 3 cm) or a type of interface that has a distance detector andthus can determine whether or not an object is very close to theinterface (for example, within 3 cm).

Examples of the general-purpose interface 12 include an RS-232C orUniversal Serial Bus (USB) interface and IEEE (pronounced “I triple E”)1394 interface. When a contactless communication interface 11′ such as acommercially available RFID reader is externally connected to thegeneral-purpose interface 12, the student electronic musical instrument100 may not include the contactless communication interface 11.

As described above, the communication interface 14 is connected to thecommunication network 500, for example to a Local Area Network (LAN),the Internet, or a telephone line, and is connected to the server 400through the communication network 500. In the case where the programsand the variety of parameters are not stored in the external storagedevice 10, the communication interface 14 is used to download theprograms and parameters from the server 400. As a client, the electronicmusical device transmits a command, which requests download of programsor parameters, to the server 400 through the communication interface 14and the communication network 400. Upon receiving the command, theserver 400 distributes the requested programs or parameters to theelectronic musical device through the communication network 500 and theelectronic musical device receives the programs or parameters throughthe communication interface 14 and stores them in the external storagedevice 10, thereby completing the download.

Although the student electronic musical instrument 100 is of a keyboardinstrument type in this embodiment, it is not limited to the keyboardtype and may also be a string instrument type, a wind instrument type,or a percussion instrument type.

The teacher electronic musical instrument 300 includes the samecomponents as those of the student electronic musical instrument 100.The guardian PC 101 includes a general-purpose personal computer and theserver 400 includes a general-purpose server computer. In the case wherethe teacher electronic musical instrument 300 is embodied as a PC type,it is constructed of a general-purpose personal computer.

FIG. 3 illustrates an external appearance of the accessory device 200.As shown in FIG. 3, the accessory device 200 has a small size for easyportability and a child-friendly shape which arouses the interests ofchildren.

FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of the accessory device 200. Since anonvolatile memory 208 is the only component specific to the accessorydevice 200 for the student electronic musical instrument 100, thenonvolatile memory 208 is solely described here and a description of theother components will be omitted. Since the accessory device 200 has asmall size as described above, it uses a small-size LCD 207 as itsdisplay unit.

For example, a Non-Volatile (NV) RAM, a power-backup RAM, or a flashmemory can be used as the nonvolatile memory 208 although any type ofnonvolatile memory may be employed.

FIGS. 5 a to 5 c illustrate most important information used when themusic teaching system of this embodiment performs control operations.FIG. 5 a shows information that the student electronic musicalinstrument 100 (or the teacher electronic musical instrument 300) storesin the ROM 6, FIG. 5 b shows information that the accessory device 200stores in the nonvolatile memory 208, and FIG. 5 c shows informationthat the server 400 stores in an external storage device (not shown).

The student electronic musical instrument 100 or the teacher electronicmusical instrument 300 stores server information as shown in FIG. 5 a.The server information includes information indicating the position ofthe server as an access destination on the communication network 500,which is expressed by, for example, a uniform Resource Locator (URL).Different server information may be used for the student electronicmusical instrument 100 and the teacher electronic musical instrument300.

The accessory device 200 stores user information and characterinformation as shown in FIG. 5 b. The user information includes a userID (for example, a login name) and a password of a student who possessesthe accessory device 200. The character information includes informationindicating the states of a character (see FIG. 3) that is displayed onthe LCD 207 of the accessory device 200. The states of the character arespecifically the degree of vitality, the degree of growth, thepersonality, acquired items, and the like of the character, which theseare merely virtual states.

The server 400 stores user information, lesson information, rewardinformation, and practice record information. The user informationincludes user IDs (login names) and passwords of students, which arereferred to when the student electronic musical instrument 100 logs intothe server 400. The lesson information includes test music selectioninformation (ID, etc.), test music performance data (which may includeinformation indicating the music score position), an advice of theteacher (which may include information indicating the music scoreposition), and a message from the teacher. The reward information isinformation that makes a change to the state of the character.Specifically, the reward information includes a change in the vitality,a change in the degree of growth, a change in the personality, and anaddition or removal of items such as a hat or shoes of the character.The reward information is virtual information since it is associatedwith the states of the character. The teacher checks the practice recordinformation and prepares reward information containing informationcorresponding to the checked result. Alternatively, a program on theserver 400 may automatically generate the reward information based onthe practice record information (specifically, advancement of theperformance skill, a total practice time, the number of pressed keys,and an automatic scoring result). The reward information is notnecessarily always positive. When the practice result is negative, thereward information may be information which changes the state of thecharacter so that the vitality of the character is reduced, the degreeof the growth is decreased, the character becomes old and infirm, thepersonality is worsened, or the character loses an item. The practicerecord information is a record of practices that the student has doneaccording to the lesson information. Specifically, the practice recordinformation includes the number of times an accompaniment has beenplayed, the number of pressed keys, a total practice time, a part of themusic score up to which its performance has been played, a scoringresult obtained by a scoring function, or performance data in whichpressed keys are recorded without change (for example, performance datain Standard MIDI File (SMF) format).

An overview of a control process performed by the music teaching systemconfigured as described above will first be described with reference toFIG. 6 and then be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 7 to 12.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a character displayed on the displayunit 9 of the student electronic musical instrument 100.

If the student places the accessory device 200 on the student electronicmusical instrument 100 that is powered on, then the student electronicmusical instrument 100 obtains user information from the accessorydevice 200 and logs into the server 400 based on the obtained userinformation. The student electronic musical instrument 100 obtainscharacter information from the accessory device 200 and generates acharacter based on the obtained character information and displays thegenerated character on the display unit 9. In addition, the studentelectronic musical instrument 100 obtains reward information and lessoninformation of the student from the server 400 and changes the generatedcharacter based on the obtained reward information (see FIG. 6 a). Afterdisplaying the changed character on the display unit 9, the studentelectronic musical instrument 100 selects a test music based on theobtained lesson information and displays an image according to thelesson information (see FIG. 6 b).

When the student conducts a practice according to the lesson image onthe display unit 9, the student electronic musical instrument 100records the practice. If the student terminates the practice andseparates the accessory device 200 from the student electronic musicalinstrument 100, then the student electronic musical instrument 100updates the practice record information on the server 400 and then logsout of the server 400.

On the other hand, if the accessory device 200 is placed on the teacherelectronic musical instrument 300 that is powered on, the teacherelectronic musical instrument 300 logs into the server 400 and generatesand displays a character based on character information obtained fromthe accessory device 200 in the same manner as the student electronicmusical instrument 100 does. Then, the teacher electronic musicalinstrument 300 obtains practice record information from the server 400and displays it on the display unit. The teacher views the displayedpractice record information and determines reward information. If theteacher inputs the determined reward information through a specific userinterface (UI) on the teacher electronic musical instrument 300, thenthe teacher electronic musical instrument 300 writes the input rewardinformation to the server 400.

For example, a student who commutes to a music classroom conducts amusical performance practice by placing an accessory device 200 on astudent electronic musical instrument 100 located at their home in theabove manner and then goes to the music classroom with the accessorydevice 200. Then, a teacher places the accessory device 200 of thestudent on the teacher electronic musical instrument 300 to display apractice record of the student. The teacher views the practice recordand inputs reward information to the teacher electronic musicalinstrument 300. Accordingly, the teacher electronic musical instrument300 writes the input reward information to the server 400. After thelesson of the music classroom is finished, the student carries theaccessory device 200 back to the home and then places the accessorydevice 200 on the student electronic musical instrument 100. Then, thestudent electronic musical instrument 100 changes and displays thecharacter, which was displayed before the student went to the musicclassroom, according to the reward information input by the teacher.That is, the character is continually changed according to performancepractices of the student. This allows the student to change thecharacter to become better and thus to practice the performance a lot,thereby improving the motivation of the performance practice of thestudent. Accordingly, the student does not feel uncomfortable practicingthe performance, thereby allowing the student to continue practicing theperformance with enjoyment.

The following is a detailed description of this control process.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a procedure of a main routineperformed by the student electronic musical instrument 100(specifically, by the CPU 5).

In the main routine, the CPU 5 performs the following processes:

(1) Login Process (step S4)

(2) Practice Process (step S5)

(3) Logout Process (step S8)

(4) Normal Operation Process (step S9)

The login process (1) and the practice process (2) are performed whenthe accessory device 200 is placed on the student electronic musicalinstrument 100. The logout process (3) and the normal operation process(4) are performed when the accessory device 200 is placed on the studentelectronic musical instrument 100. In this manner, the main routine isdivided into two sections depending on whether or not the accessorydevice 200 is placed on the student electronic musical instrument 100.Therefore, the CPU 5 always checks whether or not the accessory device200 is placed on the student electronic musical instrument 100 andselects one of the two divided sections of the main routine according tothe checked result and performs the selected section (step S2).

The login process (1) is performed once when the accessory device 200 isfirst placed on the student electronic musical instrument 100 after theaccessory device 200 is not placed on it for a predetermined time ormore. The logout process (3) is performed once when the accessory device200 is first separated from the student electronic musical instrument100 after it is placed on the student electronic musical instrument 100for a predetermined time or more. Thus, we define a flag which is set to“1” (step S6) when the accessory device 200 is placed on the studentelectronic musical instrument 100 and is reset to “0” (step S10) whenthe accessory device 200 is not placed on it. The CPU 5 always checkswhether or not the value of the flag has been switched (steps S3 and S7)and performs the login process (1) when the value of the flag has beenswitched from “0” to “1” and performs the logout process (3) when thevalue of the flag has been switched from “1” to “0”. When the value ofthe flag is not changed, either the practice process (2) (flag=“1”) orthe normal operation process (4) (flag=“0”) is performed according tothe value of the flag.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating a detailed procedure of the loginprocess (1).

As shown in FIG. 8, first, the CPU 5 obtains user information stored inthe nonvolatile memory 208 from the accessory device 200 through thecontactless communication interface 11 (step S21). Then, the CPU 5 readsserver information stored in the ROM 6 and accesses a server 400indicated by the read server information through the communicationinterface 14 and the communication network 500 and logs into the server400 using the obtained user information (step S22). Since userinformation of each registered student is stored in the server 400 asdescribed above, the server 400 compares the user information (i.e., alogin name and a password) transmitted from the student electronicmusical instrument 100 with user information (i.e., a login name and apassword) in the server 400 and permits login of the student electronicmusical instrument 100 if the two user information are identical.

Then, the CPU 5 obtains character information stored in the nonvolatilememory 208 from the accessory device 200 through the contactlesscommunication interface 11 (step S23). Using the character information,the CPU 5 creates and stores a group of image data (hereinafter referredto as “character objects”), which is required to display a character inan animated fashion, in a character object storage area (not shown)reserved in a specific portion of the RAM 7. The CPU 5 sequentiallyreads character objects stored in the character object storage area atspecific times and provides them to the display unit 9 (step S24).Accordingly, for example, the character on the left side of FIG. 6 a isdisplayed in an animated fashion on the display unit 9. Since a processin parentheses in step S23 is performed when an accessory device asshown in FIG. 13, which has a different configuration from that of theaccessory device 200, is employed (i.e., since this login process iscommonly applied when the accessory device 200 is employed and when theaccessory device of FIG. 13 is employed), the process in parentheses instep S23 is not associated with this embodiment. The same is true in aflow chart of FIG. 11.

The CPU 5 then obtains reward information from the server 400 using theuser information and the server information (step S25). Specifically,the CPU 5 sends a request for transmission of reward information of astudent corresponding to a login name in the user information to aserver 400 indicated by the server information through the communicationinterface 14 and the communication network 500. In response to thisrequest, the server 400 reads reward information of the studentcorresponding to the received login name from a plurality of informationwhich is stored for each student in the server 400 as described above,and transmits the read reward information to the student electronicmusical instrument 100. By receiving the reward information transmittedfrom the server 400, the student electronic musical instrument 100obtains the reward information of the student who possesses theaccessory device 200.

The CPU 5 then edits the character object according to the obtainedreward information and reflects it in the displayed image. The rewardinformation is information that makes a change to the states of thecharacter that are represented by the character information as describedabove. More specifically, the character information represents thedegree of vitality, the degree of growth, the personality, acquireditems, and the like of the character, whereas the reward informationrepresents a change in the vitality, a change in the degree of growth, achange in the personality, and an addition or removal of items such as ahat or shoes of the character. That is, the character object createdusing the character information can be changed according to the rewardinformation without changing the overall feel of the character. FIG. 6 aillustrates that the character on the left side is changed to thecharacter on the right side according to the reward information. In theillustrated example, the degree of growth is increased and a hat isadded as an item to the character according to the obtained rewardinformation.

The CPU 5 then changes the obtained character information according tothe obtained reward information and updates (or overwrites) thecharacter information in the nonvolatile memory 208 of the accessorydevice 200 with the changed character information (step S27). The updateof the character information in the nonvolatile memory 208 is alsoperformed through the contactless communication interface 11. Since datacommunication between the student electronic musical instrument 100 (orthe teacher electronic musical instrument 300) and the accessory device200 is performed always through the contactless communication interface11, the data communication will be described only when the datacommunication is performed using another device. Data communicationbetween the student electronic musical instrument 100 (or the teacherelectronic musical instrument 300) and the server 400 will also bedescribed only when the data communication is performed using devicesother than the communication interface 14 and the communication network500.

Then, the CPU 5 obtains lesson information from the server using theuser information and the server information in the same manner as stepS25 (step S28) and selects a test music based on the obtained lessoninformation (step S29) and then displays an image according to thelesson information (step S30). The character image on the left side ofFIG. 6 b illustrates an example character image when the obtained lessoninformation includes a message from the teacher and the character imageon the right side of FIG. 6 b illustrates an example character imagewhen the obtained lesson information includes a test music and an adviceof the teacher. When the obtained lesson information includes a testmusic and an advice of the teacher, it is preferable that the adviceimage of the character be displayed in combination with a music score ofthe test music selected at step S29 or the advice image and the musicscore be displayed alternately so that the specified music scoreposition is displayed.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating a detailed procedure of the practiceprocess (2).

In the illustrated practice process, the CPU 5 automatically plays anaccompaniment of the test music selected at step S29 (step S41) anddisplays the music score of the test music in synchronization with theautomatic accompaniment (step S42). Through the tone generator circuit15, the effect circuit 15, and the sound system 17, the CPU 5 thengenerates musical sounds corresponding to the performance operatoroperated by the student as the student plays a performance according tothe displayed music score (step S43). A further description is omittedherein since the illustrated practice process is not different from thenormal practice process up to this step.

Then, the CPU 5 stores a record of a performance played by the student(i.e., a practice record) in a practice record storage area (not shown)reserved in a specific portion of the RAM 7 (step S44). Similarly to thepractice record information illustrated in FIG. 5 c, examples of thepractice record include the number of times an accompaniment has beenplayed, the number of pressed keys, a total practice time, a part of themusic score up to which its performance has been played, a scoringresult obtained by a scoring function, or performance data in whichpressed keys are recorded without change (for example, performance datain Standard MIDI File (SMF) format).

The CPU 5 also displays the character on the display unit 9 in ananimated fashion according to the performance operations or the totalpractice time in order to prevent the student from being tired ofpracticing the performance (step S45).

FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating a detailed procedure of the logoutprocess (3).

First, the CPU 5 updates (or overwrites) practice record informationcorresponding to the student stored in the server 400 according to thepractice record stored in the practice record storage area (step S51).

The CPU 5 then causes the student electronic musical instrument 100 tolog out of the server 400 (step S52) and displays an image expressingexit of the character from the display unit 9 (step S73). The characterwhich has exited the display unit 9 moves, without change, to the LCD207 of the accessory device 200 (see step S74 of FIG. 12 which will bedescribed later).

The normal operation process (4) is a process of the student electronicmusical instrument as a normal musical instrument. Examples of thenormal operation process (4) include a process for generating musicalsounds as keys are pressed or performance data is played automatically.

A main routine performed by the teacher electronic musical instrument300 will now be described.

Since the main routine of the teacher electronic musical instrument 300is the same as that of FIG. 7 except that it has no practice process(2), the main routine of FIG. 7 excluding the practice process (2) isused as that of the teacher electronic musical instrument 300.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating a detailed procedure of a loginprocess of the teacher electronic musical instrument 300. In FIG. 11,the same steps as those of the login process of the student electronicmusical instrument 100 of FIG. 8 are denoted by the same referencenumerals as those of FIG. 8. This login process is activated once whenthe accessory device 200 is first placed on the teacher electronicmusical instrument 300 after the accessory device 200 is not placed onit for a predetermined time.

In this login process, first, the CPU 5 causes the teacher electronicmusical instrument 300 to log into the server and displays a characteron the display unit of the teacher electronic musical instrument 300(steps S21 to S24). The steps S21 to S24 of this login process arealmost the same as those of the login process of the student electronicmusical instrument 100. However, this login process differs from that ofthe student electronic musical instrument 100 in that the teacherelectronic musical instrument 300 logs into the server 400 with theauthority of the teacher (step S22′). The purpose of logging into theserver 400 with the authority of the teacher in this login process is torestrict each student's access to reward information and practice recordinformation among information of each student stored in the server 400since it is not necessary (or it is not suitable) to allow the studentto freely overwrite the reward information and the practice recordinformation. Server information for the teacher used for login may bedifferent from that for the student. User information for the teachermay be previously input through a specific UI to log into the server andinformation to be accessed with user information for the studentobtained from the accessory device may then be specified (the same istrue for the logout).

The CPU 5 then obtains practice record information from the server 400using user information and server information (step S61) and thendisplays the obtained practice record information (step S62). If theteacher determines reward information by viewing the displayed practicerecord information and inputs reward information through a specific UI,then the CPU 5 obtains the input reward information and writes it to theserver 400 (step S64).

When it is desired to immediately reflect the reward information in theaccessory device 200, the CPU 5 reflects it in the same manner as stepsS25 to S27 of FIG. 8 (steps S25 to S27). In the case where the rewardinformation is immediately reflected, character information of theaccessory device 200 may be directly changed instead of writing elementsof the reward information one by one to the server 400. On the otherhand, if it is desired to reflect the reward information in theaccessory device 200 at a later time, any reflection process is notperformed in this login process. Thereafter, when the student logs intothe server 400 using the student electronic musical instrument 100 ofthe student, the reward information is reflected in the accessory device200 as described above in steps S25 to S27 of FIG. 8.

A description of the logout process and the normal operation processperformed by the teacher electronic musical instrument 300 is omittedherein since the logout process and the normal operation process are thesame as those performed by the student electronic musical instrument100.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart of a procedure of a main routine performed bythe accessory device 200 (specifically, by the CPU 203).

The main routine is divided into two procedures, i.e., a procedure whenthe accessory device 200 is placed on a contactless interface of anelectronic musical instrument (which may be the student electronicmusical instrument 100 or the teacher electronic musical instrument 300)and a procedure when the accessory device 200 is not placed on thecontactless interface.

When the accessory device 200 is placed on the contactless interface ofthe electronic musical instrument, the image of the character is to bemoved from the LCD 207 of the accessory device 200 to the display unitof the electronic musical instrument and therefore, if a character isdisplayed on the LCD 207, the CPU 203 hides the character (i.e., causesthe LCD 207 not to display the character) (step S71→S72). Then, the CPU203 updates character information stored in the nonvolatile memory 208as the electronic musical instrument accesses it through the contactlesscommunication interface 209 (step S83). This character informationupdate includes the update achieved by the process of step S27 of FIG. 8performed by the student electronic musical instrument 100 and theupdate achieved by the process of step S27 of FIG. 11 performed by theteacher electronic musical instrument 300. That is, this process is torecord significant positive changes as the student practices aperformance such as an increase in the vitality of the character, animprovement of the personality, an increase in the degree of growth, oran acquisition of the capability to obtain an item.

On the other hand, when the accessory device 200 is not placed on thecontactless communication interface of the electronic musicalinstrument, the image of the character is to be moved from the displayunit of the electronic musical instrument back to the LCD 207 of theaccessory device 200 and therefore, if no character is displayed on theLCD 207, the CPU 203 creates a character based on the characterinformation stored in the nonvolatile memory 208 and displays thecharacter on the LCD 207. Then, to cause the created character to movearound on the LCD 207, the CPU 203 updates the image of the characteraccording to a time measured by a timer or an operation of an operator201 by the user (step S75). The CPU 203 also modifies characterinformation stored in the nonvolatile memory 208 according to the timemeasured by the timer or the operation of the operator 201 by the user(step S76). This modification, for example, when the student is lazy inpracticing the performance, includes modification of virtual informationsuch as a reduction in the vitality of the character, a decrease in thedegree of growth, making the character old and infirm, or the loss of anitem held by the character. When the student virtually plays with thecharacter using the operator 201, a small positive change may be made tothe character. However, in this case, any significant positive change asthat made when the student practices the performance cannot be made tothe character.

When the guardian PC 101 is connected to the communication network 500as shown in FIG. 1, the guardian may view the lesson information of thestudent in the server 400 using the guardian PC 101 or may add rewardinformation, separately from the teacher.

The teacher electronic musical instrument 300 is not necessarilyembodied as a musical instrument and may also be embodied as a PC asdescribed above. When a PC is used as the teacher electronic musicalinstrument 300, the normal operation process of the main routine is nota process of the teacher electronic musical instrument as a normalmusical instrument and is, for example, a score management process inwhich practice record information of the student is estimated andmanaged. Of course, this does not mean that the normal operation processis limited to the score management process. In the login process of theteacher electronic musical instrument 300, the accessory device 200 isused to log into the server 400 in the same manner as in the loginprocess of the student electronic musical instrument 100. However, if aPC is used as the teacher electronic musical instrument 300, studentuser information may be manually input and the student user informationmay then be used to log into the server 400 to view or edit a variety ofinformation of the student. The guardian PC 101 can simply perform thesecontrol processes since the guardian PC 101 is a type of PC.

FIGS. 13 a and 13 b illustrate an accessory device 200′ having adifferent configuration from that of the accessory device 200, whereFIG. 13 a shows an external appearance of the accessory device 200′ andFIG. 13 b shows a control structure of the accessory device 200′.

As shown in FIG. 13 a, the external appearance of the accessory device200′ has a shape corresponding to the image of the character displayedon the LCD 207 of the accessory device 200. Although any material may beused for the accessory device 200′, one can consider, for example astuffed toy. The purpose of forming the accessory device 200′ with sucha shape and material is only to attract the interest of young students.Since such a material and shape is not essential in applying the presentinvention, the accessory device may have an insipid shape (for example,a plate shape) and may also be colored with a single color.

An RF tag 209′ is embedded in the accessory device 200′. A passive oneis employed as the RF tag 209′. Even if the RF tag 209′ is a passiveone, it can be considered as a contactless communication interface asshown in FIG. 13 b. The nonvolatile memory 208 is also connected to theRF tag 209′. A variety of information can be written to the nonvolatilememory 208 using a writer for RF tags. Therefore, if a reader/writer forRF tags is employed as the contactless communication interface of theelectronic musical instrument, user information and characterinformation can be written to the nonvolatile memory 208 of theaccessory device 200′ as with the accessory device 200. However, sincethe RF tag reader/writer is too large in both size and price, comparedto the simple RF tag reader, a simple RF tag reader is employed as thecontactless communication interface of the electronic musical instrumentand a reader/writer prepared in a different place is used when writinginformation to the nonvolatile memory 208 of the accessory device 200′.Accordingly, the user information alone is previously stored in thenonvolatile memory 208 of the accessory device 200′ and information inthe nonvolatile memory 208 is not overwritten with the contactlesscommunication interface of the electronic musical instrument.

When the accessory device 200′ is employed, the same main routine asthat of FIG. 7 is basically used for each of the student electronicmusical instrument 100 and the teacher electronic musical instrument300. However, the character information is stored on the server since itis not stored in the nonvolatile memory 208 of the accessory device200′. Accordingly, the processes of steps S23 and S27 in the loginprocess of the student electronic musical instrument 100 of FIG. 8 arereplaced with processes in parenthesizes. For the same reason, theprocesses of steps S23 and S27 in the login process of the teacherelectronic musical instrument 300 of FIG. 11 are replaced with processesin parenthesizes.

Since the accessory device 200′ only permits data readout, the accessorydevice 200′ does not perform the main routine performed by the accessorydevice 200 which is described above with reference to FIG. 12.

It is not possible to display a character on the accessory device 200′.However, since a character is created and displayed on the display unit9 of the student electronic musical instrument 100 when the accessorydevice 200′ is placed on the student electronic musical instrument 100in the same manner as when the accessory device 200 is placed on thestudent electronic musical instrument 100, using the accessory device200′ also improves the motivation of the performance practice ofstudents who commute to the music classroom.

Although the interface between the accessory device and the studentelectronic musical instrument or a teacher device for teaching ispreferably a proximity contactless interface, it does not matter whetherit is a neighborhood contactless interface or a contact-type interface.Hereinafter, the term “teacher apparatus for teaching” is used ratherthan the term “teacher electronic musical instrument” since it is notnecessarily embodied as a musical instrument and may also be embodied asa PC. The contact-type interface includes a type of interface havingelectrodes exposed on its contact surface or a type of interface havinga connector for connection between them.

The teacher apparatus for teaching may also have the functions of astudent electronic musical instrument. This is because, for example,some electronic musical instruments for a small-size musical classroomare used for both the teacher and the students.

Needless to say, the object of the invention is also achieved byproviding a system or a device with a machine readable storage medium,in which program codes of software for implementing the functions of theabove-described embodiment are recorded, and by causing a computer (aCPU or an MPU) of the system or device to read and execute the programcodes stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program codes read from the storage medium implement,by themselves, the novel functions of the invention, and the programcodes and the storage medium in which the program codes are storedconstitute the present invention.

For example, a floppy disk, hard disk, magneto-optical disc, CD-ROM,CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, magnetic tape,nonvolatile memory card, ROM, or the like can be used as the machinereadable storage medium which contains the program codes. The programcodes may also be provided from a server computer through acommunication network.

Further, needless to say, the invention includes not only animplementation of the functions of the above-described embodiment byallowing the computer to execute the read program codes but also animplementation of the functions by allowing an OS or the like running onthe computer to perform all or part of the actual processes.

Needless to say, the invention also includes an implementation of thefunctions of the above-described embodiment by writing the program codesread from the storage medium to a memory provided on a functionexpansion board inserted in the computer or provided in a functionexpansion unit connected to the computer and then causing a CPU or thelike, provided in the function expansion board or the function expansionunit, to perform all or part of the actual processes based oninstructions of the program codes.

1. An accessory device comprising: a nonvolatile storage part thatstores character information representing a feature of a character; aninterface part that reads and writes the character information from andto an external device which is logically connected to the accessorydevice; a display; and a control part that performs control operation todisplay the character created based on the character information storedin the nonvolatile storage part, on the display, and to hide thecharacter from the display while the accessory device is logicallyconnected to the external device through the interface part.
 2. Theaccessory device according to claim 1, further comprising: an operatorwhich is operable by a user; and a change part that changes thecharacter information stored in the nonvolatile storage part accordingto an operation of the operator or an elapsed time.
 3. The accessorydevice according to claim 1, wherein the interface part comprises acontactless interface of a proximity type or a neighborhood type, whichis capable of logically connecting the external device when theaccessory device is placed in proximity or nationhood of the externaldevice.
 4. The accessory device according to claim 1, wherein theinterface part comprises a contact-type interface having exposedelectrodes for electric contact with the external device or having aconnector for connection with the external device. 5-15. (canceled)